Congratulations on making it this far into this year’s first issue of Obiter Dicta! You might be thrilled to know there actually is a place to talk sports at Osgoode Hall, and it’s right here! Welcome to the sports section of Obiter!
As the sports editor, I’m hoping to provide broader coverage of the sporting landscape. Sure, we’re going to be involved in discussing the big four North American sports: football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. But this year at Obiter, we’re hoping to get more coverage of sports that have been growing over the last decade, such as mixed martial arts and e-sports, and how their burgeoning success is impacting business and creating new areas of legislation and regulation. We would love to hear not only fascinating stories, but pieces about sports you would only see on ESPN8 “The Ocho”, like spike-ball or cornhole.
This year, we’re also hoping to show that there’s more to sports than just a box score. We want to publish more impactful features that showcase the intersectionality of sports and law, and how the two collide with one another far more than most people realize. Sport can play a major part in the growth and expansion of business, especially with regard to our neighbours down south. Some of the biggest sports stars in North America are mired in contract holdouts right now, with no end in sight. We want to evaluate whether these strategic negotiation tactics are warranted and what they mean for the future of athletes in their respective sports. Huge issues are constantly arising when it comes to the commodification and representation of elite athletes; as we saw this summer with the NCAA trying to restrict individuals without a post-secondary education, notably LeBron James’ agent, Rich Paul, from continuing their practice. Sports organizations and athletes are facing legal fallout at every turn and we’re hoping to effectively analyze more of these situations on a regular basis.
While we want the sports section to be taken seriously, and there are certain topics that absolutely should be handled in such a manner, at the end of the day, I’m hoping to keep the sports section of Obiter fairly light-hearted. The reason you fell in love with sports in the first place is because they’re supposed to be fun; an escape from the countless list of problems many in society face today. A big reason why I’m at Obiter today is because I enjoyed writing about how the cold-hearted Bill Belichick is actually the perfect soulmate you’ve been looking for all these years (and I still believe he is). There aren’t many opportunities to talk sports at Osgoode, so use Obiter as the outlet to get off all those takes and opinions that have been bottled up inside you.
Profess why you’re so passionate about your favourite team. Predict who you think is winning it all this year. Tell us who’s overrated! Tell us who’s underrated! Rant about your fantasy team and how you believe you’re winning your league this year. Enlighten us about a sport you think no one knows about and why you believe it deserves to get more attention. Just have fun with it! After all, in the words of former NHL Goaltender and astronomy aficionado Ilya Bryzgalov, “It’s only a game, why you have to be mad?”